


Requiescence

by guileheroine



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff without Plot, Gap Filler, Insomnia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-04-12 12:02:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4478597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guileheroine/pseuds/guileheroine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korra and Asami small talk sometime between the Colossus and the wedding. Short non-story written on a sleepless night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Night

It's cool even for midnight on Air Temple Island by the time Korra finds herself nodding off, but the breeze from the patio is welcome as it drifts north into one of the island’s many spacious sitting rooms. The tickle of it against her arm is enough to sway her into semi-unconsciousness - finally, despite herself. For the first time in a long time, she’s resisting sleep on a perfectly positive ground: at this moment, she’s curled against her mother, pressed to her side in true and relieved unity after months of absence and years of absent presence.

 

 Tonraq and Senna had arrived in Republic City that evening with little fanfare. _Just get here before Varrick’s wedding!_ Korra had written, although she knew that they would have boarded a ship as soon as the news of Kuvira’s surrender reached them. In the few days since, Tenzin, the airbenders and all her other friends had been, in their own ways, determining where and how to begin to put the city back together, but they kept their pace slow and they kept together. Time was a luxury they could afford again, at least more so than in those last few days where the threat of Kuvira had been both frighteningly imminent and frighteningly opaque.

 

 Jinora and Kai and Opal took news to nearby towns and brought back delegates to start reorganizing the future of the Earth Kingdom (Kingdom, again.) Wu sat in on these preliminary discussions on his potential sovereignty, Mako tagging, insistent that he was fine, healing fine, he was good and fit enough to sit in a meeting. Lin, with Suyin an unlikely second-in-command and Baatar Jr an unlikely resource, had delved into the investigation and prosecution of those Kuvira sympathisers and supporters zealous enough to cause any serious commotion in the weeks prior. Asami let herself one, two days to grieve, tucked in her old room on the island (“stay here, Asami, it’s best if we stay together” said Pema, said Tenzin, said Korra loudest of all) but there were damage and needs assessments that needed carrying out, and Future Industries had holdings in the bruised heart of Republic City - and somewhere in there, there was a funeral to hold. (Or was there? Was it necessary? No one really knew what exactly to make of Hiroshi in the aftermath, and Korra suspected that perhaps Asami didn’t either.) For her part, Korra had attended Raiko’s meetings, formulated with him their plans of action - how to facilitate the reentry of evacuated citizens and whatever else - but right now, she is simply glad for her long-awaited family reunion.

 

 The shift of Senna’s arm around her jolts Korra from her reverie. They’ve been sitting here talking, for hours now, just enjoying the other’s company (Tonraq too, until he decided to retire to the bedroom before sleep claimed him.) The island that evening had been well-populated; the airbenders and her entire, sprawling Team Avatar convening here when they could, Pema and her acolytes somehow happier for each extra person - but it was quiet and warm and relatively calm in a way that Korra was learning to cherish. Nonetheless, this long, long moment with her mom is desperately welcome. It’s comfy, too, disappearing into the embrace of her mother and of sleep and this soft, soft couch - screw the ironing-board beds, her back can make the sacrifice for one night!

 

 “Do you want to go to bed, honey?” Senna says suddenly in a voice made of feathers, although she sounds like she already knows the answer. It makes Korra feel young and loved.

 

 She _hmms_ before responding. “No… No, d’you?”

 

 As her mother makes slowly to reply, there’s a sudden rustle of footsteps and Korra raises her head to look towards the adjoining hallway that leads to the women’s dormitories. Asami is at the door. She looks very mildly surprised (little colour in her face, as there has been for the past few days), and before Korra can say ‘hey’ she begins to apologize.

 

 “I couldn’t sleep so I thought I should stretch my legs,” she offers, her voice slightly gravelly from disuse and the lateness of the hour, “sorry if I interrupted- if I woke you...”

 

 Korra shakes her head in reassurance and Senna conveys the same with a kind, “I was about to get up, actually.”

 

 “I wanted to get some air.” Asami continues quickly, making for the broad, open patio door, where the breeze is still wafting in. Korra follows the movement with her eyes until she feels her mother extracting herself from her arms, bidding goodnight and I love you and all the rest. Senna hugs her close and when she kisses her cheek, Korra thinks she feels Asami’s eyes flicker back from the door for a fraction of a second. It feels odd somehow to share this affection in her presence, truth be told, and Korra wonders (then regrets wondering) when the last time somebody kissed Asami like that might have been. She sinks back into the warm depression of the couch and the _swish_ of the wind in the curtains lulls her almost to sleep again.

 

 Presently, she shifts and sits up once more. This time, the breeze that sifts over her shoulders and through the cotton of her tank top is a little different, enough that it’s no longer comfortable. It’s getting chillier. Asami is still poised motionless at the patio door. The breeze shoves softly against her figure on its way in. Korra can’t see her face but she follows the play of the wind in her unbound hair, and it’s lovely. Asami seems to close further in on herself.

 

 “Aren’t you getting cold?”

 

 By way of reply, Asami steps slowly back and turns into the room, but she avoids Korra’s gaze. “Yeah, you’re right.” She rubs her arms and yawns, smaller than ever.

 

 “Still can’t sleep, huh?” Korra says, half raising her arms, as if the gesture could will the other girl into them - and then, patting the space next to her, “Come here.”

 

 Asami walks around the couch and perches gingerly on its one end, very far from where she wants her. “No, come _here_ ,” Korra repeats and opens her arms fully this time, and Asami slides into them. Where she can feel it, Asami’s skin is cool, so Korra presses into her, trying to warm her up. The new proximity allows her to see the tension around Asami’s eyes, dulled by a creeping fatigue. She looks older than how Korra would’ve imagined her in her head, if she was asked to.

 

When Korra thinks _Asami_ , she still thinks of quick, talented utility-gloved hands, all action at an engine, or a steering wheel, or the pressure points of some Earth Kingdom bandit; bright eyes and a bright mouth (makeup or no), always kind and sometimes even coy (unless she was misreading them); and veritable _torrents_ of hair, the distinctive loose curl on the left side (adorable) that she didn’t clip back for some reason. That imprint in her mind is years old now, and it would take years to overwrite it if she ever wanted to. Of course, Asami’s looked older ever since Korra came back - but where a month ago she would have said older _mature_ , she now thinks older _tired_. She treasures the moments when Asami lets her hair down again, but now even that does little to inspirit her features. (She's still beautiful, though. That might have been the only thing that Korra hadn’t changed her mind about from their day one.)

 

 “You look awful,” Korra says. As Asami pulls back and braces a hand on Korra’s upper arm, she flushes and twists her mouth into a small laugh. Korra flushes back, not expecting Asami’s embarrassment. “I didn’t mean - obviously - you just look tired, I mean.”

 

 “I know,” Asami replies, bowing her head slightly before looking back up at Korra. Another small, sad twisty-mouth smile, and Korra pulls her back into her, arms relaxed and loose to indicate that Asami should stay there, this is a hold not a hug.

 

 Asami exhales loudly as she settles against her. After a few long moments, she does it again. Korra can sense the fatigue in her body, in her breathing. The weight of her feels leaden, as if her body is teetering on the precipice of sleep but her mind won’t let her fall. It feels as though if Korra listened hard enough she would be able to hear an incessant whirring through Asami’s skull. Instinctively, she lifts a hand from the other girl’s back into her hair and grazes lightly at the base of her head. When Asami responds by pressing further into her shoulder, Korra clenches her hand involuntarily, feeling the small movement through to her toes. She continues scratching lightly with her hand.

 

 A small eternity passes.

 

 Asami is still wide awake, she can tell by the rhythm of her breathing. It gets even colder. Asami shrinks ever closer into her, though if it’s a conscious movement or not, if it’s the chill or something else, Korra can’t tell. Korra wonders about closing the patio door, airbending it shut, but discards the thought. She doesn’t want to move her arms and disrupt the stillness. She watches a particularly lively gust of wind billow the corner of Asami’s robe up across her thigh and blows a warm blast back to flatten it again. Shortly, she releases a yawn, her stifling it leading to a second, wider one.

 

 Suddenly Asami raises her head, causing Korra to remove the hand against it down awkwardly.

 

 “Aren’t _you_ tired?” Asami says. “You know you can go to bed if you want.” She slides a hand down the shoulder and arm where her head had been, and it warms Korra more than her airbending could have. “Don’t let me keep you here.”

 

 Korra cards a hand through the mass of hair at Asami’s back in response, and shrugs. “I’m comfortable. Anyway, there’s nothing I have to do in the morning, so, yeah.” She pauses as Asami drops her gaze again. “What about you? I hope you’re not planning on working tomorrow.”

 

 “No…” A deep sigh. The tone of her voice makes it sound as though Asami is about to continue, but rather than elaborating, she flops back onto Korra’s shoulder. Work or no work, Asami’s mind would be drudging through the day, heavy. Korra mulls it over and decides not to bring Hiroshi up, when Asami does.

 

 “So I’m thinking I won’t have a funeral for my dad. Like, not a proper service, not now. I mean...he was - he was as good as gone three years ago, right?” Korra doesn’t know how or if to respond so she licks her lips and tightens her arms. “I don’t wanna get into any of the...political stuff. I just can’t think about press or any of that right now, so... It’ll just be - family.” As if family meant more than a sole griever. If Korra could have held her tighter without it being too conspicuous, she would have.

 

 She understood. Hiroshi Sato may have made a sacrifice for the city, but it did not redress the stain of his previous betrayal, a stain that had had three years to ferment in the city’s consciousness. If it had taken soft, magnanimous Asami all that while to permit the possibility of forgiveness (an eternity that, with hindsight, she resented), a meagre day of reparation and repentance wouldn’t mean much. If it had indeed been repentance, Korra thought. They hadn’t really had time to find out.

 

 “I think that’s probably what he would want,” she says tentatively. Best hold fast to what they were sure of; what Asami was sure of - and that was his love for her.

 

 Asami doesn’t reply but she feels almost lighter in her arms. Korra loosens her grip slightly but she lets her hand fall back in Asami’s hair. They stay that way for a few minutes until Korra’s fighting sleep.

 

 “So, tomorrow,” she says eventually, her voice slightly hoarse from drowsiness, “I was thinking we could pick something out for the wedding.”

 

 She’s not sure if Asami has heard her until she feels fingertips stroking slow along her shoulder, where Asami is tucked. Her eyes flutter close.

 

 “My parents brought all my stuff from the South Pole,” she continues by way of explanation, eyes still closed. “All my dresses are there.”

 

 “Sounds good,” is the response she eventually receives. Asami sounds calm. “We can go over to the estate to find something for me and see Yin and her family.” Korra feels rather than hears her laugh before continuing, and presses her own smile against Asami’s hair in return. “And I saw Varrick today. He said to dress sharp, but not sharper than him. Or Zhu Li.”

 

"Oh, right? I’m sure we can get you looking prettier than Varrick.” Asami laughs again in response, though it sounds different this time, almost bashful. It’s everything Korra can do to not turn ever so slightly and purse her lips into Asami’s hair, the top of her head. She exhales loudly instead. “So Varrick and Zhu Li are raring to go, huh?”

 

 “They’re super excited! Though part of that’s probably to do with the fact that they’re not doing cleanup work like everyone else. You know Raiko wanted the new portal tested, just to be safe. He’s wary of -” Asami stops stroking and clasps her fingers onto Korra’s shoulder in acknowledgement and humour. “I think he’s wary of another Harmonic Convergence situation” - Korra groan-laughs - “Thinks the city can only handle so much spiritual energy, though I do agree the portal is very worth studying in other respects.  As if Republic City hasn’t been one of the most spiritually harmonious places on Earth for years now.... It may have taken a while, but for all Raiko’s misgivings, I really think we’ve adapted well!”

 

 There’s energy in her voice for the first time and it makes Korra smile.

 

 “Well, _you_ certainly did,” she enthuses. “I disappear and you literally rework the city around the vines. And there I was bending fire at them for weeks! Asami, maybe you should be the Avatar.”

 

 Asami gives a _mmm_ and a short laugh of dismissal, stretching in Korra’s arms. “But it would have been that much better if you’d been here.”

 

 “Yeah?”

 

 “For the spirits, probably, yeah -” A yawn.

 

 “And for you?”

 

 “Well, of course,” Asami mumbles, suddenly sober.

 

 Korra buries her face in her hair. They’ve been this close before, on sleepless nights three years before, but not this way around - not Korra holding Asami together. Whichever way, she wouldn’t mind getting used to the nearness. She inhales, quiet but deep. The scent, though she craves more and more, is intensely familiar and comforting. She remembers trying to remember it. “If it’s any consolation, you - you made things a bit better for me, even if you weren’t there.”

 

 Slowly, Asami pulls back to look at her. If she wants Korra to elaborate, she doesn’t let on, and to be honest, she looks too sleepy to care. Korra watches her blink a few times. “I’m glad.” Asami says shortly. “I really missed being around you.” She lifts her hand to tuck a strand of hair behind Korra’s ear. The action feels slowed by the effort her tiredness makes it take. Warmth flares and scintillates into tiny sparks where she touches her, despite the coolness of her fingers. Asami’s expression is a shade from loving, even in the minimal light Korra can tell, even with her head half-lost to sleep.

 

 And _me too_ sounds as inadequate as _I’m sorry_ , even at this ungodly hour, so Korra says, “I missed _you_ a lot more than I expected to.” It’s a quietly significant thought; one that’s led her quietly to other significant thoughts.

 

 Asami doesn’t reply in words, but she smiles, and when her muscles and her eyelids are too heavy to keep smiling, she pulls Korra close again.

 

 Korra thinks she wouldn’t mind falling asleep right there.

 

 And she doesn’t.

 

 She wakes up the next morning to the distant clatter of the Air kids in the dining room, Rohan and Meelo struggling to yell over one another, by the sounds of it. Asami is fast asleep in her arms, though Korra’s shoulder is dead. There’s a blanket drawn around the two of them (a Water Tribe pelt, her mother’s), and Asami looks more snug and safe than maybe Korra’s ever seen her. It’s another feeling she could get used to.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ^think Turtle Duck Date Night, except groggy.


	2. Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> something became the morning after the original story, so i'm adding it here, even if it is five months late

When Korra wakes, the crisp scent of morning on Air Temple Island is already gone. It’s the first time she’s missed it in several days. Instead, her senses are assaulted by the aroma of traditional Air Nomad butter tea, offset only a little by the familiar essence of Asami curled against her. (Asami curled against her - Korra almost jolts as the awareness settles in her sleepy brain.) Last night’s wind has disappeared and the air is still, warm. The only stir she feels is Asami’s breath.

 

She opens her eyes wide, pushing her body’s urge to stretch into her toes so as not to move and wake her friend. No one else is in this particular room right now, although the blanket thrown around herself and Asami tells her that her mother has been here. Korra exhales and lets the distant, animated voices of Meelo and Rohan in the other room draw her fully into wakefulness. Then someone screams an octave too high; she presses her eyes closed tight in irritation. Ugh. Kids were so excitable in the morning. She doesn’t understand why. She almost wishes she hadn’t woken up yet, as late as it likely is.

 

It’s probably the fact that she had fallen asleep in such a weird position. It wouldn’t be right to say she was uncomfortable (she certainly, absolutely doesn’t want Asami to move), but the weight of Asami tucked on her shoulder, sleep-heavy, has rendered it numb and her neck aches from the angle it had hung at whilst she slept. She tries to recall who had fallen asleep first, but draws blank. Whatever. What matters is that Asami slept, had been able to sleep. Korra takes a moment to savour the feel of her all soft and silent against her own body. The hours clocked in their current position make it feel as though they’re glued together in all the places where they touch. A little clammy, but really not unpleasant; chests pressed together with just a couple of thin layers between them, not that she’s dwelling on that. Korra lifts her hand from the sofa onto Asami’s back and presses lightly, like she wouldn’t mind being closer still in spite of the heat.

 

Suddenly, the door to the hallway through which Asami had entered the night before swings open, and Ikki bounds in.

 

“Korra!” She exclaims, skipping across to the sitting area and leaning against the back of the sofa, right beside Korra’s head. “Morning! Did you know they’re already putting the wedding stuff up outside?!”

 

“Shh, Ikki, Asami’s asleep,” Korra says urgently, though not unkindly, cupping her hand gently over Asami’s exposed ear. Ikki’s mouth makes an ‘oh’ and she peers at Asami like she’s only just noticing her. Korra steels herself (it’s not Ikki’s fault that Korra’s morning testiness makes her sound like a screech bat to her), and smiles. “No, I didn’t - ”

 

She stops when Asami inhales sharply against her, and they watch as her eyes flutter half-open. Korra removes the hand against her head as Asami _hmms_ quietly into wakefulness.

 

“Good morning,” Ikki says almost apologetically, when Asami blinks blearily at her. “I woke you.”

 

Asami graces her with a sleepy smile that makes Korra want to kiss her face. “It’s okay.” She yawns. “It’s late, isn’t it?”

 

“Just gone ten thirty!” says Ikki brightly. “Did you sleep well?”

 

“I think I did, considering...” Asami laughs faintly. There’s something oddly enchanting about the way sleep has made her voice warm and scratchy. “I’m all stiff now, but I slept okay.” She lifts her head to Korra suddenly. “I fell asleep on you.”

 

“Unforgivable,” Korra says, stretching her arms. Asami dips her head back into her shoulder when she continues, “Anyway, I thought _I_ fell asleep and trapped you here. Whatever. We can call it even.”

 

“Mm,” says Asami, breathing slow again. “Any breakfast left, Ikki?”

 

“Sure! But you better get to it before Meelo does! Hey, are you guys going out?”

 

 _Are you - ?_ Korra blanches, and then curses herself because Asami must have felt her tense. What reason would Ikki have to think… She wasn’t really that transparent, was she?

 

“Later, yeah,” she hears Asami say perfectly casually after a second. “I need to go to the city for a few things.”

 

(Of course.) Of course that’s what Ikki had meant. Korra’s heart doesn’t cease to hammer away, though. If Asami notices anything, she doesn’t let on; in fact, she doesn’t budge from Korra’s shoulder for a long moment.

 

Then, eventually, she says, “I’ll get off you now.”

 

Korra nods and Asami sits up, avoiding her gaze as she climbs out from over her legs. A part of Korra immediately mourns the loss of contact. Asami rolls her joints and stretches before tightening her robe across her chest. She sits for a moment with her (perfect) bedhead, basking in the sunlight, and then stands up to make her way towards the women’s dormitories.

 

Korra follows suit a moment later. She finds Naga on the floor of her room, still asleep. She throws her arms around her anyway and kisses her twice. “I left you all alone last night, didn’t I, girl? I’ll be out for a bit today, but I bet the Airbender kids will hang out with you if you want.” Naga grunts in response, earning another kiss.

 

Korra washes and dresses for comfort. When she pulls her tank off over her head, the scent of Asami catches. She wonders for a brief, permissive moment whether Asami can smell _her_ on her own clothes, and what’s she doing right now? Dressing. Putting her face on, probably. Nothing interesting, but Korra has to make herself not think of it.

 

When she makes her way to the kitchen, Ikki breezing out past her on Korra's way in, she’s surprised to find Asami already there. It’s slightly jarring, in the best way possible, to see her mother there also.

 

“Good morning, honey,” says Senna, holding out a cup of tea.

 

It’s been too many months since the last time she offered Korra morning tea. Korra receives the cup in exchange for a long hug. She catches Asami’s eye from Senna’s shoulder; there’s a smile barely suppressed on the other girl’s face, tucked behind the brim of her mug. The wide kitchen window frames Asami in her plain, pretty sweater and skirt, sunlight picking the hint of brown out of her black hair. She looks inviting, still and golden, the hint of another world as if in a painting. Something too precious even for a gallery; the kind of subdued masterpiece you might unearth in someone’s attic. Somehow, immediately, Korra knows the image is going to stick for a long time.

 

“Since when do you get ready quicker than me?” She grins.

 

Asami rolls her eyes and passes her a slice of bread.

 

“Where’s Dad?” Korra says, bending the steam over her tea.

 

“Still asleep,” replies her mom, coming to sit next to her where she stands by the kitchen tabletop. “I was just saying to Asami that I was wondering which of you’d get out of bed first. Well, not out of _bed_ …” she amends.

 

Korra can see the hint of a blush on Asami - and, yeah, if someone had happened upon _her_ locked fast asleep in their daughter’s arms, she would probably have been a little embarrassed, too. She’s a bit curious to the conversation she missed.

 

“I hope you slept well,” Senna continues, “I know I did.”

 

“Better than us, probably,” Asami laughs, switching her mug from her right to her left hand so she can grab an apple from the fruit bowl. The way her voice slides over _us_ makes Korra’s heart light.

 

“Well, you were welcome to go back to bed at anytime!” Korra feigns offence. She’s in that mood. Asami giggles, stupid radiant, and throws an apple at her. Korra catches it with no effort save the barest flick of her arm and raises her eyebrows smugly. Asami only laughs again, the sound so clear and the view so refreshing. Korra thinks about that, about the difference a few hours of rest have made. She wants to believe that her presence has something to do with it, too.

 

“Asami and I were going to find what to wear to Varrick’s wedding today,” she says as she takes a bite out of her breakfast.

 

Senna’s eyes light up. “That reminds me! I brought you a couple of new dresses.”

 

“Oh, awesome!” Korra smiles, and then leans pointedly in and kisses her cheek. “I love you, Mom. I missed you.” As she retracts, Naga pads into the room, making it smaller instantly.

 

“I missed you more,” Senna is saying, before she tilts up to kiss Naga, who's nuzzling her hair. “And you, I missed you, too. We’re all back together now.”

 

Korra, thoroughly warmed, kisses them both again. So much of that this morning. Here is her family.

 

She glances at Asami, whose eyes mine her teacup a little sadly even as the rest of her glows before the morning light. There’s someone who deserves a kiss. If Korra could have done it without making a mess of her nerves, she would have delivered.

 

“Asami, let’s sit outside,” she says suddenly, but gently.

 

They down their tea and seat themselves on the veranda of Korra’s room. Senna brings Korra the dresses before taking Naga out into the yard. There’s a blue and a white, both to Korra’s taste, although she suspects they might not be to Asami’s.

 

“What I mean is, _I_ wouldn’t be able to pull this off,” Asami is saying as she smoothes out the skirt of the blue dress in her lap, “but you could. You’re - you’d look beautiful, don’t you think?” She gestures down the fabric and looks at Korra.

 

What’s she supposed to say? Well, her face is probably saying it all. “I… if you think so,” Korra manages, a little too quiet. She clears her throat. “Well, I mean, I can’t be wearing the white to the wedding, so...”

 

“You think Zhu Li will wear white?” Asami says, reaching to unfold and inspect the white dress.

 

Korra chews her lip. “I guessed she might. I mean, I know she’s Earth Kingdom… but they’re gonna have to match, aren’t they?” She doesn’t really know how keen Zhu Li might be on these things, but for some reason she can’t imagine Varrick in anything other than the finest Water Tribe wedding blue and white.

 

“Well, here in our United Republic you can wear whichever colour you want,” Asami intones with a smile. “But, yeah, I think they will match white. At least I think they should. Especially if it’s going to be a wintry theme, as I hear from Ikki,” she adds, and tells Korra about the backdrops of snow-capped mountains that were apparently being placed outside where the wedding would take place.

 

“Oh, right,” says Korra. “Blue it is then. You know, if I ever got married, I’d be glad if it were somebody from the United Republic so I could just get them to match me. Because no way am I not wearing my white and blue!”

 

“Well, I’m from the United Republic and I’d be sticking to red, thank you very much,” Asami says with a laugh in her eyes.

 

“But you insist on matching? Guess you can’t marry me,” Korra smirks, but the expression changes so quickly to a flush that she knows she has to look away.

 

“I don’t _insist,_ ” Asami says quietly, and Korra can see her fighting her own rosy smile from the corner of her vision. The sentence stops high like it’s unfinished but she doesn’t add anything else. A moment later Asami continues, and what she says makes Korra look up again.

 

“I actually still have my mom’s red wedding dress. Not that that’s the one I would wear. I just liked it. And her wedding photographs are the only ones I’ve got where she’s wearing her hair down. They’re really beautiful. I’ll miss her if I ever do get married.” She exhales through her nose like she’s suppressing a sigh. Korra has to resist the desire to reach out and tilt her chin back up.

 

“Show me when we get to the mansion,” she says. She can imagine the pictures in her mind  (she’s seen enough others to visualize Asami’s mother quite well), and then she can even easier imagine Asami like that, wedding day, red dress, hair down. “You know, Asami, it’s crazy how much you look like your mom. Especially with your hair up like now.”

 

Asami’s eyes widen. “Do you know I was thinking the very same watching you with _your_ mom earlier? You look even more like her than before. Except the hair, of course.”

 

“Which mom digs, by the way!” Korra informs her with a grin.

 

“As she should -” and, unexpectedly, Asami reaches over and brushes a lock of hair above Korra’s shoulder. It pulls her instantly back to that moment last night, the moment where Asami had touched her hair and said _I missed being around you_ so slow and close to sleep that Korra knew she must have really, really meant it.

 

She ignores the way her chest is constricting. “So you really do like it, huh?”

 

“Yes! It suits you so much. You really make it work.” Asami turns back to the dresses spread between them and hands her the blue one. “Just like you will this. Wanna try it on?”

 

“Nah, it’ll be fine.” Korra stops smiling at her lap and looks up across the island, shielding her eyes from the sun. “Anyway, we should get out before midday. It’s gonna get even warmer.” She stands up and doesn’t realize she’s given Asami her hand to help her up until the other girl’s holding it.

 

When they walk out to the dock, the ship that her parents had arrived on the night before is there. The wind buffets the corner of the sails still left loose; it swells like it’s itching to leave. Korra gestures to the craft.

 

“Makes me wanna get away, you know?”

 

Asami turns pensive eyes on her. They’re a little sad again, too, but she looks so close to happy for being sad. “Yeah? Wouldn’t _that_ be nice...”

 

Korra watches her for a second as they walk. And, yes, there’s something bittersweet in the aura about Asami. But she thinks the sunshine on her face and her own step in time with hers is tipping the scales the right way.“Asami?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“How are you feeling?” And she really wants to say - what she wants to say is, _I want to take care of you._

 

Asami blinks, silent for a moment, then loops her arm through Korra’s, squeezing first. “I’m good for now. Thank you.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> regarding wedding dress colours: i have posited that element/nation colours usually fly, particularly considering that in the majority of asian cultures it's red, green/yellow is common in parts of central asia, and often any bright colors go. :)


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